Nothing like a Sunday afternoon... sorta.

Yesterday was a somewhat chaotic day.

We went to Vancouver, downtown, for a dear friends baby "party" (for guys and girls) and it was so incredibly lovely! We all seemed to have a great time. For a while...

At some point I tried to feed Piper and she wasn't interested, which isn't normal for her. She will almost always eat when offered. So I didn't force anything, but she wasn't quite acting herself. She then was getting really sleepy and again, not quite herself. So we left the party (our parking was running out anyways), and decided to head to see my sister and Matt's brother (yes, they are married, too) who live out at UBC.

Us with Vasia and Henry, awaiting their little girl, in 3-5 weeks!

Piper slept in the car for a bit, which she does often enough and is usually pretty happy after a nap. We got to J+A's house and she still wasn't quite herself, still not wanting to eat and just kinda lethargic.

So I figured, since we were already in Van, I might as well give BCCH a call, and it would be easy enough to come in. Talking to the cardiologist on call, mentioning her symptoms and her possible case of bronchiolitis, he said it wouldn't hurt to come in.

So we did.

And there goes the rest of our day!

It was actually not that bad. The cardiologist had given the ER front desk a heads up to expect us, and I think we skipped a bit of the wait, which was nice. We were quickly scooted to a smaller waiting room, where there were less sick people, which was really great (hospitals are made up of mostly waiting rooms. There is a waiting room for everything... kinda strange).

So we waited there for a bit (it was about maybe 3:45?), and then were sent to a little glass enclosed room with a bed and (thank the Lord!) a TV. A nurse popped in eventually and hooked Piper up to the SAT's monitor, and as usual, her oxygen levels were up at 97-99%, so nothing to worry about there. Then they had to take her temperature rectally this time ("more accurate" the nurse said, with a squinty face), and she did have a slight fever. Other than that, she was doing alright. They handled her case really well, and made us feel as though we were doing the right thing bringing her in.

The nurse kept saying what a nice loud murmur she had, since she doesn't get to hear them that often in the ER. But she didn't like how Piper's chest was indrawing when she was breathing and the rate at which she was breathing.

Anyways, long story short, we waited in the glass/tv room for the longest amount of time, in which Piper took a nap, we watched like, 3-4 episodes of CSI:somewhere and people kept checking in from time to time.

The doc finally came and examined her and thought to try a few things, like giving her a chest x-ray, because they thought she had bronchiolitis, too, and then a nebulizer with fentalin (??) in it and serious snot extraction (it had an acronym that I can't remember) to see if there was any infection.

A lovely Aussi nurse then came in to do the nebulizer (which is what people use for asthma, the little puffer), but it was in mask form, like the oxygen masks (except the ones at BCCH have a little face of a puppy dog on them, so it kinda looks like the kid has a puppy mask on- cute). So we did that for 10 mins, and I have to admit, those were not the most glorious 10 mins of Piper's life. The nebulizer shot out a mist/vapour and it made noise, and Piper had to breathe it in. It didn't hurt her, but her arms were held down and she was not impressed.

She basically cried the whole time, while Matt held the mask, and I held her and we all waited it out. Once we were all done, she gave some good coughs and prompty threw up all of her stomach contents on my pants (yes, my nice pants, since we were out at a party), and was pretty shaken up after that. The nurse said that the fentatlin was to open up her airways, and hence expanding her diaphragm, hence, pushing on her stomach, hence... barf. This was not spit up. It was a whole lot of gook, all at once. Bleh.

Then it was the snot-extractor, which they held her down on the bed for and fed a tube way up her nose. It thought it would go up like, 2 inches, maybe, but they just kept feeding that tube up/down her nasal passages! My jaw dropped. They suctioned some boogies out of both nostrils and that was all for the messy stuff. Then we could just hold her and wait to be called for the chest x-ray.

In that time, waiting, my lovely sister brought us some food, as it was about 8pm now, and neither of us had eaten anything since lunchtime. That was probably the best part of the day :) She brought a veritable smorgasbord that we laid out on the bed and all dug in. The nurses and docs who kept coming in all gave us "eyes" that said "wow... food, much?", but we didn't even care.

Yikes. It was a lot of drama. With the chest x-ray done, we eventually saw the doc again and he felt that everything was looking pretty good.

By then, her fever had come down, there was no infection in her snot, and the x-ray showed nothing negative. They confirmed she had bronchiolitis, and that it will just finish on its own. There isn't much we can do. She just has to wait. The doc said that if it were to have turned into anything worse, it would have happened in those first 2-3 days, but we are now on day 9, and it hasn't gotten worse, so its just a matter of time now.

The hospital doc said to check in with our local doc/pediatrician today to see how Piper is doing, so I went this morning (getting the last available appointment for the day! thank you God!). She said that even from Friday, when we saw her last, Piper was looking and sounding better. She said her chest wasn't indrawing as much her breathing was slower. She said to just watch out for blue spells (which we have yet to have), but on the whole, Piper seems fine. Just has to ride out this cough.

Unfortunately, she won't be able to go for her 6 months shots this week, as she is kinda sick. We see the pediatrician next week sometime, and we'll see how Piper is then, and he'll give us the OK to get her shots.

Oh, and then, speaking of shots, our doc asked if I had gotten "the" flu shot and I said I hadn't and she asked why? I said I wasn't even sure why not, I guess just timing and being able to get it done. I was just so focused on when I should get Piper's done. She said "just hold on one second, and give me your shoulder". She then dashed out the door and came back with a wee tiny needle and gave me the shot right then and there! It was so stinking fast and painless, I was shocked! That was what all the hulliballoo was about!? Really? Maybe I'll wait and see how I feel tomorrow.

Anyways, after all that jabbering: we are all pretty happy and fairly healthy, though Matt and I are both pretty tired today. It takes a toll on your nerves and your emotional state hanging around in any emergency room.

But, again, we are so delighted to be home with our baby and that she is doing really well. None of this seems to be a worry for her heart, so that makes me happy. And again, I can't wait until she can just be sick and not have it effect her heart. Just be good old-fashioned sick, no strings attached.

Sorry if this was kinda convoluted... I am running on low these days. I'll let you know how the next few days go!